FAYETTEVILLE -- In Nolan Richardson's 17 seasons as the University of Arkansas basketball coach from 1986-2002, he beat 14 fellow Naismith Hall of Fame inductees.
Richardson's Razorbacks beat teams coached by Mike Krzyzewski, Dean Smith, Rick Pitino, Larry Brown, John Thompson, Jim Boeheim, Denny Crum, Lute Olson, Bill Self, John Calipari, Gary Williams, Pete Carril, Jerry Tarkanian and Guy Lewis.
En route to winning the 1994 national championship, Arkansas beat Thompson's Georgetown Hoyas in the second round of the NCAA Midwest Regional, and Olson's Arizona Wildcats and Krzyzewski's Duke Blue Devils at the Final Four.
One Hall of Fame coach who Richardson never got to face was Indiana's Bob Knight, who also coached at Army and Texas Tech but won three national championships with the Hoosiers.
'If you name a coach, I basically have played against him," Richardson said on Wednesday when he spoke at the Northwest Arkansas Touchdown Club. "Except for Bob Knight."
Arkansas and Indiana were bracketed to play in the 1991 NCAA Tournament when Richardson's Razorbacks were the No. 1 seed in the Southeast Regional and Knight's Hoosiers were the No. 2 seed.
"We thought we were going to play Indiana," Richardson said. "That didn't happen."
Kansas, the No. 3 seed coached by Roy Williams, prevented an Arkansas-Indiana regional final by upsetting the Hoosiers 83-65. The Jayhawks then beat the Razorbacks 93-81.
"I always wondered about it," Richardson said of an Arkansas-Indiana game during his coaching days. "But Knight and I never met."
Arkansas finally got its NCAA Tournament matchup with Indiana, but that wasn't until 2008 when the Razorbacks beat the Hoosiers 86-72.
The only other Arkansas-Indiana game resulted in the Hoosiers' 75-50 victory in Bloomington, Ind., during the 1949-50 season.
Arkansas and Indiana will play for a third time when the Hoosiers make their first visit to Fayetteville for Sunday's game in Walton Arena.
"I'm looking forward to seeing [the Razorbacks] playing that caliber of team, to see where we are," Richardson said. "That's what these games are for. To see where we are and how far we've got to go. That's important."
Arkansas Coach Mike Anderson, Richardson's assistant with the Razorbacks, has his youngest team in 17 seasons as a head coach with nine newcomers and no seniors.
"I've been impressed with the fact that they're guarding folks," Richardson said.
Arkansas held Texas to 31.3 percent shooting (21 of 67) in a 73-71 overtime loss Friday night at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, then held the University of California-Davis to 32.1 percent (18 of 56) in an 81-58 victory Monday night in Walton Arena.
"The key is how hard they compete," Richardson said of the Razorbacks' defensive intensity. "When you have a lot of new kids and you can't get them to play hard, you have a really serious problem even though you maybe have talent. But Mike's got them playing hard.
"If you have them playing hard and continuing to improve from one game to the next, I expect them to be a pretty solid ballclub come January or February."
An overtime loss to Texas on a neutral court might be encouraging to Arkansas fans considering the Longhorns returned four starters from last season's NCAA Tournament team and added a top 10-ranked recruiting class, but Richardson said a loss is still disappointing.
"Don't get carried away and fall in love with the fact that you came close," he said. "I mean, coming close doesn't get you the award.
"You can feel like you played your best, and you can get better, and you had a chance to win that game even more than losing it in overtime. But as far as being happy? Ain't nobody supposed to be happy when you lose."
Richardson said he's happy about Arkansas' announcement this week that the 1994 national championship team will be honored March 2 when the Razorbacks play Ole Miss.
"Any time you have a team that's represented this university as national champions, I love to see them get together from time to time to celebrate what they accomplished," Richardson said. "I don't think we realize how big of an accomplishment that is -- and almost going back-to-back national championships.
"It wasn't like it was a fluke. It was there again for the second taking."
Sports on 11/15/2018